Pitting themselves against children was probably not the smartest thing that CRG has ever done but they narrowly failed to kill a vote for a modest 2.99% increase in the tax levy for schools. The 140-138 vote was a testament may be a signal that even in their home of Brown Deer, CRG support is waning.

Although CRG (Citizens for Responsible Government) has experienced several defeats over the past few years, it’s tough to believe that the birthplace of CRG, the Village of Brown Deer, would hand them another defeat.

This weekend, CRG distributed a flier to Brown Deer residents urging them to come to cast a “no” vote against the budget in part because, as CRG claimed in their flier, “more money is not equating to better student performance — ACT scores continue to decline. They are the worst in the North Shore area..”

The North Shore includes the wealthiest and most well funded schools in the state. Funding North Shore schools well has served the North Shore well in the past and what CRG was suggesting was that Brown Deer residents shouldn’t even give their schools an inflationary increase to cover costs.

If you want to make sure that parents will come out to support school funding, what you want to do is tell them their kids are stupid and don’t deserve the benefits of other, wealthier communities. Pit their children against saving about $50 per homeowner (the amount of the increase) and a parent will choose their child over the money every time.

CRG thuggery hasn’t worked very well for them lately. When a CRG rally-goer knocked a woman over, shoving her to the ground recently, they didn’t win any points with the public. When a CRG founder and activist was appointed by County Executive Scott Walker to head up the Milwaukee County Ethics committee as a reward for helping Walker and his allies, he lied to the County Board about his political activism and they responded by denying the confirmation of his appointment. When a CRG founder and activist tried to get the County to adopt a plan which he would personally profit from, again, CRG was defeated.

While CRG is very good at garnering media attention, logical policies aren’t their strong point. Choosing the strategy of directing a torch yielding crowd to attack and politically lynch those who oppose their views may be great for the cameras, it’s not the way to run a government.

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